Wheeler Trigg Kennedy Raises Starting Lawyer Salaries to $135K

DENVER, CO, JULY 19, 2007: When nationally-recognized litigation firm Wheeler Trigg Kennedy LLP (www.wtklaw.com) opened its doors in 1998, it started a buzz in the Denver legal community and set a precedent of offering the highest salary to first-year associates of any Denver-based law firm. Less than two years after it last raised starting salaries, the firm is doing it again.

As of October 1, 2007, WTK will offer $135,000 as a first-year associate’s starting salary. “We attract some of the very best young lawyers in the country,” states Hugh Gottschalk, WTK’s Managing Partner. “Handling complex civil litigation for Fortune 500 companies across the country from our great location in Denver, matched with a competitive salary, makes Wheeler Trigg Kennedy an enticing place to be. We want to make sure that this continues.”

From its beginning, WTK has handled complex civil litigation and trials for some of the country’s best-known companies. The firm’s work for such companies has exploded in the last few months with the addition of several senior trial lawyers, including Kevin Kuhn and John Fitzpatrick, who has a national reputation as a “go-to” trial attorney for high exposure liability cases. By raising salaries, WTK hopes to continue to recruit and retain the high quality associates it needs to staff such cases.

While $135,000 may be tops for Denver-based firms and above the national average, it falls below the entry level salaries of $160,000 recently set by the largest firms in the major metropolitan areas on either coast.

WTK Chairman Michael O’Donnell says, “Having lower salary costs than the law firms with which we compete nationally for cases — such as the class-action lawsuit we're handling for Ford in California in which plaintiffs are claiming multi-billion dollars in damages — keeps WTK attractive to Fortune 500 corporate counsel who are managing increasingly tight litigation budgets.”

At Wheeler Trigg Kennedy LLP, 42 lawyers handle trials and appeals of complex civil litigation, including class action lawsuits and pattern litigation — often in the role of national and regional trial counsel. The firm's typical client is a Fortune 500 company — an industry leader with a strong interest in protecting its brand name, products, people and customers. WTK attorneys have served as lead trial counsel in all 50 states and have tried cases to verdict in 40 states